Huelga General = Grand Stink

I know that updates have been thinner than Twiggy, but I have a fantastic explanation that will be given after I have updated all of you about the life and times of Sydney Fogle.
So, the 29th of September, the entirety of Spain went on strike (or so we thought). In actuality, the numbers that the government give and the numbers that the press give when talking about the number of strikers differ (Qué sorpresa - my host mom tells me that this is not uncommon). The program was telling us that we should be prepared for strikers outside of our internships and even that the bus systems would be unreliable. All of this was true, but not to the extent of other places. As soon as midnight struck on the 28th and began the 29th it seemed like a completely different place (even Kabab King closed its gate!). There were very few people in the streets and walking home felt very strange. The morening of the 29th came and I had never realized how smelly trash can get, especially when the afternoon heat comes in and makes life miserable. Yes, we had picketers. Yes, it smelled. Yes, there was graffiti. No, we did not have random outbreaks of violence like in Barcelona (and now in France).